are generally covered with, dense woods* but have in some
parts cleared spots which are plantations. New Britain and
New Ireland, which are separated from New Guinea by
narrow channels, but form with it and with each other almost
one country, are of similar formation* as are the chains of
islands which appear like prolongations of the main land
into the western part of the Pacific. To the southward New
Guinea is separated by a wide strait from the northern coast
of Australasia.*
The following account of New Guinea and its inhabitants is
taken from M. Dumont d'Urville’s description.
The forests of New Guinea, like those of New Ireland, are
principally composed of pterocarpus, inocarpus, mimosa, croton,
scsevola, bruguera, sonneratia, hibiscus, pandanus* sagus*
cyeas, and of a great assemblage .of ferns. The tectona is
also very common, but it is to be observed that this beautiful
tree forms in these forests in general only arches of a second
order, and that these are surmounted by the summits of the
pterocarpus and mimosa, which appear at a distance to form
a second forest above the first. Cultivated spots are found
around the villages: the soil is so rich that it is only necessary
to turn it up and remove noxious weeds in order to
obtain the most abundant crops. But the Papuas are indolent
and ignorant of agriculture, and suffer the esculent plants
to be choked up by the multitude of parasites. The plantations
of arum are alone somewhat more carefully kept.
* The northern coast of New Guinea was discovered by the Portuguese
navigator Don Jorge de Meneses, in the year 1,526. It was. named Nueva
Guinea by the Spaniard Villalobos, who, in 1645, sailed 230 leagues along
the northern shore of this country, which he supposed not to have behn before
discovered by Europeans. (History of Discoveries in the Pacific Ocean, by
Captain Burney, vol. i.) The northernmost extremity was afterwards termed
the Cape of Good Hope; this point is within half a degree of the equator,
and the land extends southward to Torres’s Strait, or nearly to 10° of south
latitude; its longitude is much greater j but in 1700 a strait was discovered
by Dampier, separating the country before called Nova Guinea into two
parts; the eastern land was named by that navigator Nova Britannia. Sixty-
seven years afterwards Captain Carteret found another strait which Cuts off
the eastern extremity of this latter country, and the name of New Ireland was
given to the most remote part.
The descriptions I have already selected referring to the
physical character of the Papuas of the islands apply with
some exceptions to the Papuas of New Guinea. The latter,
however, are a genuine and peculiar race, and not a mixed
people, as some have supposed. This might be inferred from
the very genrfal diffusion of tribes havingia similar character
over the countries of; New Guinea and the adjoining great
islands, as well as the long chains which extend into the
western Pacific Ocean. In this conclusion I am fully confirmed
by Mr. Earle, who is- better acquainted from personal
observation and intercourse with the Papua race than any
former voyager has been. Mr. Earle entirely disagrees with
some. French writers who have supposed the Papuas of the
northern nib. w i h w f l p He
assures me that there are not the slightest; grounds for that
opinion. He has seen many individuals who really were-of
a mixed breed, and who differed greatly from tbe*s genuine
Papuas. “ The mixed or half-breed are a fine sturdy people,
with curly not woolly hair, and without that tuftrlike appearance
which characterises the hair of the- genuine Papuas.’'
He adds : “ I suspect that the Papuas originally.subsisted
entirely on the natural products of the sea and on fruits, and
that what little knowledge they : have ief fiultivation ^f the soil
has been derived from the Polynesians or Arafuras, from
whom they have also learned to construct the long tenements
which shelter a whole tribe under one roof. The Papuas of
the south near Torres's Btraits make conical huts of a much
larger size, but in form similar to those of the Australians.
This form appears to be that generally adopted by the Negro
tribes throughout the countries where they are found. The
Hottentots are of all others the most like the Papuas in the
nature of their hair, which grows, as it is well known, in
separate tufts.
“ That the Papuan race is the most ancient of the races
inhabiting the Indian Archipelago cannot, I think, be doubted.
It is extremely probable that they occupied originally all the
islands of the archipelago, large and small. They have at
length been found in the interior of Borneo near the source
of the Kotto river on the west coast. They appear to
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